'You go, girl!': Action 13 gets results for northeast Houston grandmother with trash build-up issues
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An 80-year-old grandmother reached out to ABC13, fed up with trash that had been building up on her porch in northeast Houston for a month, and Action 13 came through for her.
Just moments after we aired her story on Eyewitness News at 3 p.m., city workers came out and got her trash.
"I wish I could take my trash out. I wish I could do a lot of stuff that I can't do," Shirley McMclillian said. "I am the type of person -- I don't like to ask for help. I try to be independent."
McMillian doesn't get around as well as she'd like.
That's why she applied for and was approved for city trash collection assistance.
Workers had been coming out and getting the trash from her porch once a week for almost a year and a half, when they suddenly stopped.
She said they hadn't come since Jan. 7, and her calls to 311 felt like they went nowhere.
"Don't seem like anybody is doing anything, so my next step is to get a hold of the news channel," she said. "I kind of laughed because she said, 'You go, girl,' and I said, 'Oh, I will.'"
SEE ALSO: City stops by Houston woman's home hours after Action 13 steps in: 'I just want to thank you'
ABC13 put Ms. Shirley and her "You go, girl" spirit on TV at 3 o'clock.
We'll let you guess what happened next.
"Guess what? They just picked up your trash! It took, what, 15 minutes after our story aired," reporter Pooja Lodhia told McMillian.
"Thank you so much," McMillian said, while adding, "That don't mean they'll get it next week."
ABC13 is here to make sure Ms. Shirley gets the services she deserves. We received this message from Houston Solid Waste Management:
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused Ms. McMillian. During the week of her last collection, there were equipment and driver changes on her route, and unfortunately, her assisted collection status was not communicated to the new driver. We are servicing her address now and have added it to a six-month monitoring list to ensure this does not happen again."
For more on this story, follow Pooja Lodhia on Facebook,X and Instagram.
